Detective`s Task Exceeded Stated Policy

January 16, 1986|By Jeffrey Moore, Staff Writer

POMPANO BEACH — During the month after police Detective Frank Carbone Jr. admitted he lied under oath, he was allowed to perform at least one lie-detector test as part of a criminal investigation, police said Wednesday.

The information was a reversal of a prior statement by Lt. David Cassell, a police spokesman. On Tuesday, the day Carbone was fired, Cassell said Carbone was on administrative duty and had not participated in any criminal investigations since last month.

Carbone, 43, confessed at a court hearing last month that he lied under oath and falsified a court document in 1984 while engaged in a legal dispute with a fellow detective.

He pleaded no contest to a charge of criminal contempt of court on Dec. 18, but was allowed to continue working while he awaited disciplinary action. He was fired Tuesday.

Carbone will remain on the payroll, however, until next Tuesday to allow him time to leave his departmental business in order, said Police Chief John Lewis.

Cassell said he couldn`t explain the discrepancy about the type of work Carbone had been doing, since he was passing on information from other officers. Lewis said Cassell has had a heavy workload, and didn`t have time to collect all the facts.

Lie detectors, though rarely introduced in court, are used routinely by police to screen suspects and witnesses. The integrity of the operator is crucial to their effectiveness, especially when results are challenged, said City Commissioner Michael Gomes, a lawyer with criminal trial experience.

``A good defense attorney would throw (Carbone) out of court, every time,`` Gomes said.

Broward Chief Assistant State Attorney Ralph Ray, when asked about the propriety of Carbone doing investigative work, said it was a departmental problem for city police, ``until it impacts our office.``

Lewis first learned Tuesday that Carbone routinely had been conducting polygraph tests for pre-employment interviews, but said those tests were administrative and would not conflict with Carbone`s admitted problems. Gomes, however, said any polygraph test done by Carbone should be called into question.

Lewis was more concerned Wednesday when informed that Carbone had conducted a polygraph test Monday, the day before his firing, as part of a criminal investigation into a vandalism charge. ``We certainly will take steps to make sure it doesn`t happen again,`` the chief said.

Cassell said Wednesday he wasn`t sure whether Carbone had conducted other investigative polygraphs in December, since those records were filed away at year`s end.